As everyone was booted into the game, Jasper and Riez found themselves in a blank white room. Jasper cleared his throat again, looking over at Riez and then nodded slowly. "Yea... I didn't really upgrade this room."
Riez rolled her eyes but didn't say anything as a pop-up appeared in her vision.
With a wave, Jasper dismissed the pop-up so he could do the walkthrough. It had taken him an hour to try and disable the welcoming pop-up that he had implemented the first time around. Still, when he removed it, the rest of the build failed... or the physics became wonky. It had been a headache, and he had ended up just leaving it and instead creating a system for people to dismiss the message. Well, they weren't really dismissing it since that would break the system as well. In reality, they were shrinking it to the size of an atom and hiding it in the corner of the room instead of in their face, which was as good as anything.
"Before we get going, you need to define what kind of god you want to be," Jasper said, giving Riez a serious look. "You can be evil if you want, I am not going to stop you, but we are here to develop a game and push the world in certain directions. Think you can help with that?"
Riez paused for a moment, clearly pondering what to do. "Oh, I was thinking more along the lines of a trickster, actually. You're all high and mighty, clearly in need of someone to knock you off that pedestal, and honestly, I'd be delighted to take on that responsibility." Her smugness was almost thick enough to cut with a knife.
Jasper rubbed his brow, his body trembling a little as he tried his best not to say something about them needing to work together. He took a deep breath and let it out. He wasn't quite sure why Riez got under his skin, but he supposed that was part of the charm of working with different people. You have to grow as a person.
The team lead nodded slowly, took another breath and smiled. "Great! We could use someone who is a bit more focused on working people. Though I have been tinkering with the Domain list, so let us take a look at it together."
Jasper swept his hand, and a grand list of Domains appeared in front of them. Then he snapped, and several items disappeared. "Sorry, but since we need to focus on developing and not just mucking around in the world, so I have removed the duplicates that everyone else has. Also, you will not be getting a full boost to our level, to begin with. Instead, you will gain it in a trickle. Am I clear?"
Riez wasn't listening. She was already looking over the list. Jasper deflated a little and looked over the list as well.
Riez's eyes beamed as she looked at the list. Soon, they turned to Jasper. "How many can I take?" She asked with an eagerness that seemed to infuse every word.
Jasper smiled, adjusting his glasses, which he had honestly missed wearing. "You can pick three, but you should have enough points to pick at least one extra, if not more," Jasper explained.
Riez was practically radiating gremlin energy, almost reaching out to pick whatever she had in mind. "How do these work?"
The god of magic couldn't help but laugh. "Great question. Each Domain has a passive ability. Some are just simple statboosts, while others are abilities you can use consistently. My Magic Domain allows me to counterspell any mortal magic, while my Endurance Domain grants me Constitution."
The intern nodded along, so Jasper continued. "Within each Domain, there are lesser powers and greater powers. While the names should speak of the power levels, it is worth noting that lesser powers are cheaper to purchase, while greater powers can essentially do anything."
Riez seemed to take a moment to understand the information before she asked her question. "And these powers use that Energy thing?"
"Yea, Energy is used to activate some powers. However, Energy can also perform what we call miracles. Essentially, if you wish something to happen that is within the range of your Domains, you can spend one Energy for an entire ingame day, and you can make it happen. It is usually a bad deal, especially if you try to do something big, it might take more Energy, but it gives you more freedom." Jasper explained, making Riez sigh.
The intern was clearly already overwhelmed. "This is already super complicated."
Jasper nodded. "Yeah, we haven't even talked about Influence and Worship, but we will do that when we get into the game. For now, just pick the three domains you believe would fit your build."
Riez reached out, picking Alacrity, Deception and Loyalty.
Jasper raised an eyebrow. "Deception and Loyalty, want to create a Paradox Domain too?"
The sneaky intern seemed to light up. "Can I?"
Jasper didn't have to consider the question for long. "No... Anyway, you will be getting quite a few pop-ups when you are ready. And you will be asked to choose your stats, and probably get something about your current rank."
Riez nodded and allowed the notes of her chosen domains to flood over her.
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Divine Domain Unlocked: Alacrity!
Players with the Alacrity Domain can never be surprised, and may set their Dexterity to 16, or if it is already 16, they may set it to 18.
Riez couldn't help but be a little disappointed. The first Domain didn't really give her anything amazing. While she couldn't be surprised, it felt like that was quite a minor benefit.
With a greed for more power, she opened the next pop-up, wanting to see what she would get.
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Divine Domain Unlocked: Deception!
Players with the Deception Domain may set their Dexterity OR Charisma to 16, depending on if they favour lies or stealth. If the score is already 16, they may set it to 18 instead.
Once more, she was disappointed. This time, there wasn't even a secondary effect, though it was neat that she got to choose which one she could have.
With her hopes firmly smashed, she looked at the last one. Expecting another score boost.
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Divine Domain Unlocked: Loyalty!
Players with the Loyalty Domain may set their Charisma to 16, or 18 if it is already 16 or higher. They may communicate with any intelligent creature, understanding them and being understood in turn. Their commands are always correctly understood, though obedience will depend on their eloquence or the use of their powers.
Riez gasped, seeing the power that she suddenly held. "I can tell people to do stuff for me! It is just what I always wanted." She pretended to wipe a tear from her eye, but Jasper couldn't help but roll his eyes.
Before Riez could explain her new passives, she was interrupted by a screen prompting her to allocate her stats. It was honestly pretty easy to do. With an 8, a 10, two 13s, a 14 and a 16, she could coordinate them with her boosts.
She could assign the 8 to her Charisma, letting her Loyalty Domain boost it to 16, then apply the boost from Deception, allowing her to reach 18. Then she could assign the 16 she had to Dexterity and let her Alacrity raise that to 18. That left her with two stats at 18, probably giving her an advantage.
Riez felt quite proud of her powergaming moment as she assigned the rest of the stats, ending up with a pretty good score.
Jasper nodded, seeing Riez pick out her scores. He cleared his throat. "Good job, though I think I will join you in reworking my character. While I like my Luck Domain and Endurance Domain, I don't really feel I get what I want from them. Between these two Domains, I have three powers, and one of those powers is just a simple boost to how much Energy I have, so I think I will be removing them for another Domain."
It wasn't really an option he had told the other players since he didn't want people to spend their time redoing their characters, but he really hadn't felt like he had used these Domains as effectively as he could have, and as such, he had implemented the system that allowed for the switch.
Letting go of the powers was reasonably easy, and he gained divine power points back from the abilities he had purchased. He got 3 from the Luck Domain and 2 from the Unbreakable Power. Lastly, he got 1 point back from "Endurance of Energy" and "A Series of Unfortunate Events". All of these were things he had used only to a very limited degree, and they didn't really synergise much with the rest of his build.
That left him with 7 Power points, and he had to pick one more Domain, thanks to Endurance being one of his start Domains. As such, he looked back at the long list. With a smirk, he chose Contracts. He had really enjoyed making deals, and the idea of someone being unable to break agreements made with him would be nice.
Jasper let the pop-up appear as the Domain registered with him.
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Players with the Contract Domain instantly know whenever somebody makes a deal with them in bad faith, or decides to break a deal with them. They learn the reason the target chose to break the deal. They also set their Wisdom to 16, or 18 if it's already 16 or better
While this change did lower his Constitution score by two points, it also boosted his wisdom by 8 points, so a pretty good deal.
Looking over at Riez, he grinned. "Ready to pick your powers?"
Riez grinned. "More than ready!"
Based on these new Domains, what would you have picked?
